of April, 1599, when it was finally solemnized in
the city of Valencia in Spain.

This transaction, by which the Netherlands were positively erected
into a separate sovereignty, seems naturally to make the limits
of another epoch in their history. It completely decided the
division between the northern and southern provinces, which,
although it had virtually taken place long previous to this period,
could scarcely be considered as formally consummated until now.
Here then we shall pause anew, and take a rapid review of the
social state of the Netherlands during the last half century,
which was beyond all doubt the most important period of their
history, from the earliest times till the present.

It has been seen that when Charles V. resigned his throne and
the possession of his vast dominions to his son, arts, commerce,
and manufactures had risen to a state of considerable perfection
throughout the Netherlands. The revolution, of which we have traced
the rise and progress, naturally produced to those provinces
which relapsed into slavery a most lamentable change in every
branch of industry, and struck a blow at the general prosperity,
the effects of which are felt to this very day. Arts, science,
and literature were sure to be checked and withered in the blaze
of civil war; and we have now to mark the retrograde movements
of most of those charms and advantages of civilized life, in
which Flanders and the other southern states were so rich.

The rapid spread of enlightenment on religious subjects soon
converted the manufactories and workshops of Flanders into so
many conventicles of reform; and the clear-sighted artisans fled
in thousands from the tyranny of Alva into England, Germany, and
Holland--those happier countries, where the government adopted and
went hand in hand with the progress of rational belief. Commerce
followed the fate of manufactures. The foreign merchants one
by one abandoned the theatre of bigotry and persecution; and
even Antwerp, which had succeeded Bruges as the great mart of
European traffic, was ruined by the horrible excesses of the
Spanish soldiery, and never recovered from the shock. Its trade,
its wealth, and its prosperity, were gradually transferred to
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the towns of Holland and Zealand; and
the growth of Dutch commerce attained its proud maturity in the
establishment of the India Company in 1596, the effects of which
we shall have hereafter more particularly